Bangalore, Jan 30 Pacific Internet Ltd, the Singapore-based leading Internet service provider, has launched Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service in India as a new IP telephony solution for enterprises, small and medium businesses (SMBs) and retail segments.Christened PacNet Vocal, the enterprise-grade IP-based service comes with a suite of value-added services tailored to the voice carrier market across verticals, including the IT-BPO sector.'Among the seven countries we operate in the Asia-Pacific region, India is the first country we are offering the VoIP to capitalise on the rapid communications growth in a booming economy and tap the huge potential in the SMB segment,' Pacific Internet vice-president Lee Tian Yew told reporters here Tuesday.As part of its marketing strategy to be the leading provider of converged Internet communication services to corporates and SMBs in the region, the new offering allows its customers to deploy reliable voice services in a cost-effective and scalable manner. It can be bundled with mobility and security solutions provided by the company.'The vocal service is being offered on the feedback we got from customers who wanted to extend their operations through IP technologies. In view of its huge size and potential, India is the first market where the service is being offered, with similar launch in Singapore next month and in the Philippines and Thailand in March,' Lee said.Armed with an Internet telephony service provider (ITSP) licence to offer VoIP, the company plans to roll out the new service through direct marketing and channel partners in major cities across the country.'With our new vocal world number functionality, Indian businesses can establish a local presence in about 400 destinations across the world with a virtual phone number. This special feature allows businesses to maintain fewer lines than extensions,' Lee added.Using IP telephony networks, unique numbers can be assigned for each extension without having to subscribe to a dedicated line for each to reduce cost overheads.As the only IP solution in the region, PacNet Vocal allows customers to forward calls made to their virtual numbers over the IP network to a designated session-initiated protocol (SIP) number, incurring only local call charges at Re.1 per minute.'We also offer free international calls within the Vocal SIP network without international direct dialling or local call charges,' he said.Though the Nasdaq-listed firm entered India in 2000 and secured an ITSP licence in A category by paying a one-time fee of Rs.20.5 million ($466,120), it is only since 2004 the subsidiary has been active after going through a consolidation phase.
(c) Indo-Asian News Service
